Who is really blocking immigration reform?

posted at 3:31 pm on March 24, 2013 by Jazz Shaw

Republicans hate immigration reform, right? You know… all those racists and such. Who could blame them? So they must be the ones torpedoing any real, meaningful immigration reform in Congress, obviously. But a recent WSJ editorial seems to put the brakes on this idea, at least in one important area. What shall we do about all of those immigrants yearning not only for freedom, but for a good job? Surely the Democrats and their largest backers are champing at the bit to put them all to work, right? Well… maybe not all of them.

The bipartisan Gang of Eight Senate talks on immigration are continuing, with avowals that a deal is done or close to it. But we also keep hearing that it may not include a flexible guest-worker program rooted in the realities of the U.S. labor market, and that some Republicans may nonetheless go along for the ride.

Specifically, the AFL-CIO has been insisting on a guest program for low-skilled workers to start at a mere 10,000 visas a year, and the Senators may agree on as few as 20,000. These would be the total number of visas for workers across the entire U.S. economy outside of high-tech or agriculture—the likes of construction, hotels and restaurants, landscaping, among so many others. To put that in perspective, in 2011 the U.S. admitted more than two million temporary workers in a work force of 154 million.

Ah… it’s our old friends in the AFL-CIO again. They’re big supporters of the Democrats and the general progressive agenda. (And by “supporters” I mean the people who finance a significant part of the machine.) And the Democrats and progressives are big supporters of immigration reform and legalization of “undocumented workers” in America. So we’re all on the same page, right?

Not if it means more workers competing legally for positions where the unions can’t get all their members on the payroll as it is. This would be a delicious bit of irony if it weren’t for the fact that legal, American workers are the ones who lose on either front. They face competition from the outside for lower skill, lower wage jobs, and unions who rob their paychecks to pay for elections selecting representatives who do nothing to strengthen American business. (And jobs.) It’s pretty much the opposite of a classic win-win.

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The bipartisan Gang of Eight Senate talks on immigration are continuing, with avowals that a deal is done or close to it.

Anyone who signs onto this deal is guilty of treason. Plain and simple. They are aiding and abetting a foreign invasion while stomping all over the notion of our sovereignty and our Constitution at the same time.

The GOP had better be working hard to stop these traitorous douchebags … Of course, it’s the GOP, so … Then again, I’m not voting for them so I can understand that they don’t care what I think anymore – not that they ever did.

It’s time for a national divorce, and the Vichy Republicans can stay in the American Socialist Superstate with the dems and aliens they collude with against America.

The AFL-CIO is going to face a choice, because their best interests — representing unionized workers in the private sector — is 180 degrees opposite what the best interests of the SEIU and AFSCME.

The public sector unions want more voters in the pipeline who will be reliably Democrat, and don’t care where they come from, because those voters will elect Democratic reps who will increase the number of state and federal employees and in turn increase the ranks of public sector workers. But you can vote Democrat at the same time you’re also taking jobs from private sector union workers.

Private sector union membership as a percentage of the overall U.S. workforce has been sinking like a stone for four decades, but the AFL-CIO (and the Teamsters) still has enough manpower and financial clout to be a major player in the Democratic Party. But that might not be the case a few years down the line, where the Dems and the public sector unions will be in a position to tell the private sector unions to pound sand about their concerns over low-wage workers being allowed into the country, because those same people are seen as boosting the public sector unions by boosting big government Democrats.

So what? 90% of ‘Lower-Skilled African-Americans’” will still vote Democrat, so there is no incentive for Democrats to care what happens to them.

Fenris on March 24, 2013 at 4:04 PM

You are right, Although the dems care just enough about them to reward them with incentives provided from the government trough, as long as their votes are still important.

I’m pretty sure once latinos gain enough in the dem party to make the african american vote inconsequential, then the dems will truly have no incentive to care what happens to them, or feel the need to provide for them to buy votes.

Kick out the illegals, enforce the southern border, and we won’t have a problem.

Yup. Actively enforce the borders and points of entry, end all the incentives that draw them here and we won’t have to kick ‘em out. With no work, no government hand outs and no automatic citizenship for offspring opportunities, most would self deport.

But in Mexico, illegal immigrants receive terrible treatment from corrupt Mexican authorities, say people involved in the system.

And Mexico has a law that is no different from Arizona’s that empowers local police to check the immigration documents of people suspected of not being in the country legally….”There (in the United States), they’ll deport you,” Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. “In Mexico they’ll probably let you go,In 2008, Mexico softened the punishment for illegal immigrants, from a maximum 10 years in prison to a maximum fine of $461. Most detainees are taken to detention centers and put on buses for home.

Mexican law calls for six to 12 years of prison and up to $46,000 in fines for anyone who shelters or transports illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the law applies only to people who do it for money. but they’ll beat you up and steal everything you’ve got first……”

“The racists want to stop immigration reform because they are against immigration. Y’know we were all immigrants once. Immigrants built this country.” – overheard at the annual St. Patties day manhatten GOPe Dem bi orgy party.

You need on the ground eyes within the construction and other industries.

Best example is the “Code Welders Union” out of Tulsa Ok..

They work hand in hand with the contractors who get the “low bid on high pressure natural gas pipe line installs.

The contractor who uses the most illegals and pays them the least get the jobs.

The “Union Boss’s” help assist, do the faking of “Union Work Time” they prior helped with the illegals fake U.S. ID’s drivers lis. and SS number.

In many cases the illegal guy the coyote or his rep. is on the job site collecting the border jumping fee.

The illegals SS and Withholding is cut normal out the the illegals wages. Then held by the compay until a no match letter comes later and the company then keeps the money.

The Union has a choke hold on the illegal this way and the illegal now a voteing member of the union will for sure vote as told by the union thug who keeps him in the U.S..

The whole of it is so corupt now that the U.S.A. is now nearing a lawless stage while the ones in D.C. take re-election money from all these intrest who now live off the backs of the wage/vote slave that have been my low greed allowed into the U.S.A.

All contracts of the Federal, State, City, County goverments are low bid and all of them go to the contractor who uses the most and pays the least to the illegals.

Thus they all have this low greed to keep the cost down, no matter the moral low they go.

Agreed. Nothing can destroy our country more than uncontrolled immigration (legal or illegal).

bw222 on March 24, 2013 at 5:47 PM

Yup. That’s what the Know Nothings said back in the 1850’s. We still haven’t learned, have we? We allowed all that unrestricted immigration (except for the Chinese, of course) and look what’s going on today — they’re all Democrats, right?

I’d say the term “Know Nothing” is more descriptive today of the immigration advocates who refuse to acknowledge the impact of a flood of tired, poor, unskilled, uneducated immigrants on work-class citizen employment issues and a bankrupt welfare state.

“The United States cannot regain its competitive standing in the world by importing low wage workers from other countries. On the one hand, it engenders conditions this country cannot and should not tolerate. On the other hand, in the modern age, a nation’s wealth and prosperity is secured by high worker productivity and capital investment, not by the availability of low-wage labour.”

Yup. That’s what the Know Nothings said back in the 1850′s. We still haven’t learned, have we? We allowed all that unrestricted immigration (except for the Chinese, of course) and look what’s going on today — they’re all Democrats, right?

unclesmrgol on March 24, 2013 at 5:55 PM

A modern liberal’s knowledge of history parallels their knowledge of economics, chemistry or a variety of other subjects.

Like Bill Ayer’s expertise in creating explosives, they know just enough to hurt innocents in a meaningless quest while getting themselves into trouble.

If I had the energy, I would type a lesson for you on historical immigration issues but it is Sunday and my fatigue with the weekend makes the effort required to educate swine an impossible hurdle.

They face competition from the outside for lower skill, lower wage jobs, and unions who rob their paychecks to pay for elections selecting representatives who do nothing to strengthen American business.

They at least have someone fighting to help them have a paycheck even if it is slimmer. That’s more than the average Republican has looking out for them.

My one concern revolves around seasonal farm workers. Last year I read that Florida tomato farmers had tomatoes rotting in the fields because they could not find enough workers to harvest their crops. History Channel showed mechanized harvesting in a few fields for different fruits and vegetables, and discussed problems bruising fruit. I do not want my taxes subsidizing illegals who don’t leave on time, but from what I’ve read about the government hurdles for farmers who try to hire temporary farm workers, it is a nightmare.
While we must protect our sovereignty, we must also ensure that we do not harm our food supply. No, I do not have the answers, just the worries.

…what?…who keeps trying to organize all the illegal maintenance and hotel workers then?

KOOLAID2 on March 24, 2013 at 3:39 PM

Bingo

People are being gamed. The PR men are planting the various good cop/bad cop cast from a group of actors who all want amnesty

The AFL-CIO is the big backer of the DEM/amnesty plan, but now Congress is getting ready to ram a bill (very very soon) the union has to recast itself as fighting for the American worker

If the bill got passed, with the 10,000 limit, the AFL-CIO will take credit, but then fight for the new crop of illegals, who would be there to fill the 8 million jobs minus 10,000 that are still open

Businesses would still have a boatload of illegal workers to jerk around

And the newly carded 20 million can settle down and make babies, who will vote DEM, as their parents moan how the AFL-CIO was forced, forced to bow down to business to get the crumbs they could

It is so staged I could puke. That goes for the SOU hijinxs (Rubio/Rand) and McCain waving his rubber cavalry sword insisting no amnesty without secure borders

And while McCain has previously said that the path to citizenship should be contingent upon securing the border with Mexico first, he insists the process of securing the border will not slow progress toward legislation.

The border state Senator will convene a “commission made up of the most knowledgeable people including border state governors,” and explained, “the final decision will be made by the secretary of homeland security.”

This is big bucks propaganda, from a big bucks staging enterprise. Do not look to the MSM to warn you when a vote call happens on a Friday, or holiday weekend. They are going to try the old McCain ploy of getting it voted in before the public hears about it on Letterman. Obama won’t even fly home to sign it, he will use a computer signature, because it has to be installed before it is known

Part of the game is to have everyone talk as if the need for an amnesty is proven, the argument is settled, and now we need to move on. The only activity I see in terms of bigger border control is a mandated increase in agents, and Big Sis buying 2 billion hollowpoints, which we can be certain will not be used on border crossers coming into the USA